Novels & Novellas

All posts tagged Novels & Novellas

After the hugs, kisses, playful slugs and tussling of the hair, Cousin Ray introduced us to Miss Carla. Miss Carla was Cousin Ray’s housekeeper. Miss Carla had brown mocha hair and sun-kissed skin. She was plump and had a mole on her left cheek. Miss Carla looked at us ans smiled warmly.

“Hello, children,” she replied. Without a second guess, we knew that Miss Carla was Hispanic. But something in her tone told us kids that although we were guest in Cousin Ray’s house, Miss Carla would not tolerate any nonsense in the house. Miss Carla set an example of a mother-figure.

As I looked around the house, I felt something rubbing against my leg. It was summer, so I was wearing a skirot* that showed off my long legs. I looked down and saw a small gray tabby kitten. I bent down and starched its ears. The kitten mewed with glee as I picked it up. Jordan and T.R. wanted to play with the kitten. I handed the kitten over to them.

T.R. was smiling with delight with the kitten in her arms. “Who are you, Cutie Pie?” she asked. “You’re so cute. I wish I could take you home with me. We have a dog with us, she’ll like you.” My sister loved animals. Cousin Ray joined us to play with the kitten.

“I’ve seen Smokie came to greet you.” Cousin Ray said. Cousin Ray petted her and went on, “I’ve got her from the animal shelter yesterday. She’s such a sweetheart, aren’t you girl?”

I’d give my soul to have a kitten just like Smokie. Her smoke-gray fur and her shinny, saphire–blue eyes; Smokie was uber-cute. Potato would kill me if I held her too long. I gave Smokie back to Ray.

“Yo, I need help with these bags!” Daddy called.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take Smokie,” Miss Carla told Cousin Ray. Cousin Ray handed Smokie over to Miss Carla. Leaving Miss Carla and Smokie, we went to help Daddy with the bags.

Cousin Ray showed me upstairs to my bedroom. The room was next to T.R. and Jordan’s room, and under the attic. The house had four bedrooms. On such a short notice, Cousin Ray had to fit four extra people who were staying the month. I was fortunate to get a bedroom of my own.

When Cousin Ray and I were inside, I went over to the bed and sat down. The bed was brass and very soft. It was so soft that I felt sleepy sitting down.

Cousin Ray asked, “Is everything alright, honey?”

“Why do you always call me ‘honey’ ?” I asked him.

Cousin Ray took a moment to answer my question. He found his answer.

“Ever since I met you, you showed me that you are a sweet and good girl. Every time I see your picture, I’ve always dreamt of having a little girl just like you. That’s why I call you ‘honey’.”

“That makes sense.”

“I’ll be downstairs. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

After Cousin Ray walked out, I lay back on the bed and gazed up at the ceiling. I thought about what Cousin Ray’s words about calling me ‘honey’. I decided to explore the house. I got up and went out the door. I sunk down the steps and looked around to see if anybody was watching me. When the coast was clear, I went to the kitchen. Miss Carla was making lunch. I went out of the kitchen and headed to the door of the basement.

I looked around to see if anyone was watching me. When no one wasn’t watching, I quietly opened the door and went down the steps. I liked looking around places like basements. I reached the bottom and was surprised at what I saw. Ray had an office. Just like an office, there was a desk with a laptop, a bookshelf filled with books, and two college degrees mounted on the wall.

Something on Cousin Ray’s desk caught my attention. I walked over to the desk and saw a picture of Cousin Ray and me. As I saw the picture, it took me back to the day of Cousin Ray’s visit. I picked up the picture and studied the look on Cousin Ray’s face. Besides not liking to have his picture taken, Cousin Ray doesn’t like to smile when his picture is taken. My cousin was very shy and blushed easily when he’s with women, some men, and children. I saw the reddening glow on his face in the picture. I studied the picture for a few more seconds before placing it back down.

I turned around and was faced with Cousin Ray. He wasn’t too happy of me down in the basement.

“Hi.” he said.

“Oh, Ray. I didn’t know you was behind me.” I said, acting dumb.

“What are you doing down here?”

Once again, I played innocent. “I was just looking around. Wow, you have a cool office. Is your desk cherry or oak wood. Let me guess, you got it from IKEA? IKEA has a lot of cool stuff.”

Cousin Ray saw through my act and placed his forefinger and thumb to the bridge of his nose. Cousin Ray sighed as he shook his head. Cousin Ray then folded his arms across his chest and got to the point.

“You have no business sneaking around in my office,” he said tersely. “I’ll let it go this time; just don’t do it again. You’re sixteen, you should know better. Let’s go.”

Cousin Ray took me by the hand and escorted me up the steps. Along the way, he leaned over and softly whispered in my ear, “I bet all of the angels are jealous of you, because you are the most beautiful girl on Earth.”

I chuckled as we went out the door. I could not believe that Cousin Ray had just hit on me. It was one of many uncanny things that would happen to me and my family during our stay.

That morning the perdition that I made about Potato would become friends with Smokie had come true. When I brought Potato inside, she saw Smokie and ran to her. I thought that Potato would hurt Smokie when she got to her. But I was stun when Potato got to Smokie and became friends with her. Potato was licking Smokie’s face and playing with her. The stories about cats and dogs being enemies were bull-garbage. Potato and Smokie were friends like an ant and a grasshopper.

They were playing outside in the front yard with T.R. and Jordan as I watched from the sidelines on the porch. A voice echoed in my head with a quote: ‘People come and go. But a friend will never leave your heart.’

The girl was Caucasian with a tan. Her strawberry-blond hair was tried in two braids with green ribbons. She wore a Gothic Lolita-styled dress and black platforms. My friends and I were into the Lolita/Goth-fashion craze. It was the first time that a girl dressed up in the style would walk out in the open and represent herself to me without a second thought on what people thought.

“I want to give you some books as a gift,” the girl said. “Some of them I don’t need and some that I wrote.” As Anna Knight handed me the books, I wanted to know more about her.

I asked her, “How old are you?”

“Fifteen. And you?”

“Sixteen.”

“I see your brother and sister with Mr. Ray’s cat and a dog. Is the dog yours?”

“Yes. Her name’s Potato; the boy and girl playing with the cat and the dog are my brother and sister. My sister’s name is T.R. and my brother’s name is Jordan. I love them, but sometimes they drives me nuts.”

Anna laughed at what I said.

“My brother and I are like that sometimes. We do it because we love each other. My brother and I are like cake and milk. I’m my brother’s only sister and my brother’s my only brother. Both our parents are in the Army in Iraq, so It’s just us now.”

T.R. and Jordan saw Anna. They waved and called ‘hello’ to her. Anna waved back and echoed the greeting. I noticed the smoke coming out the window at her house.

This is the final updated version of my failed novel. As you can see it has been reedited and rewritten. This may be the last time my novel will be posted. Please enjoy.

I turned seventeen two months before graduation. Two months later, my school graduation came. Graduation for me was a time to say goodbye to my school girl days and head out into the adult world that was life.

As my name was called to receive my diploma, I stood up and waved to my family. It was a bittersweet moment because I was receiving an art scholarship for an art school in Europe. The bittersweet part of it was that my beloved cousin wasn’t here to see me on the stage making my dream come true.

After the graduation, most of my friends went over to the pizza parlor to celebrate making it. I sat on the school bench, thinking about my cousin. My cousin was one in a million; a rare gem in a rock mime. In the middle of my thought, I heard a girl singing on a boom box. The voice was sweet mixed with a little sadness. Then I came to realize that the girl singing on the boom box was me.

As my song was playing, I thought about my cousin and the summer of last year. I also thought about Anna; a girl who no longer had a future in this world. My cousin and Anna were two of many people who touched my life. I often think about them all the time. I thought about Anna’s brother Vladimir. Vladimir, Ray and me finding Anna up in the attic of our secret place. Although I don’t get to see Vladimir or my cousin, or can’t afford to, I often send letters and visit their blogs and Facebook pages just to keep in touch. Twice a week, we always talk on the phone. It is like as my cousin and Vladimir are there with me. And I could hear Anna promising me, ‘When I get to Hollywood, I’ll save you and your family a seat at the Oscar.’

In the sixteen years of my life, I have been taught about the lessons about love, friendship, and life. And those lessons haunt me to this day.

♥

It was the spring of 1999 that I first met my cousin Ray Quidame. I was seven years old and had just come home from school. As I entered the apartment, I noticed a pair of suitcases and a guitar by the couch.I was enchanted by the guitar, when I heard sounds of laughter from the kitchen. The laughter was that of my parents; but there was another laughter that was so musical that it blended with the laughter of my parents.

I strolled into the kitchen and was surprised by the guest sandwiched between my parents at the table. The guest was a White man in a gray suit. He wore glasses and had clean-cut hair that was the color of Pepsi cola. His eyes were angelic blue that made you weak in the knees when you looked into them. He was so lovely like a prince in the fairy tale books that I read. When the stranger glanced his blue eyes my way, I was caught in his enchantment. Momma looked at me, then at the stranger. Momma spoke for me since I was too speechless to speak.

“Ray, this is my little girl, Sheila. But we call her ‘Butterfly’.” Momma told him. Turning her gaze toward me, Momma introduced me to the stranger.

“Butterfly, this is your cousin, Ray. He’s visiting us for the weekend. Say hello, baby.”

“Hi,” I spoke shyly.

Cousin Ray inspected me from my brown hair to my red Mary Janes. Cousin Ray took a notice at my birthmark on the left side of my face. Cousin Ray traced my birthmark with his thumb.

“It’s almost like touching a catapillar,” he told me. When people talk to me, the first thing they notice is my birthmark that is on my face. They always tell me that it looks excalty like a catapillar crawling on my face. To this day, people always call me ‘Butterfly’.

“Hello, my honey,” Ray finally spoke. When Cousin Ray said hello, he spoke in a rich, not too deep tone of voice. It was so perfectly pitched that I thought that he was a singer in disguised.

I leaned later from my daddy that Cousin Ray once lived in Canada as a boy and moved to New York at seventeen to study law and become a lawyer. Cousin Ray and I looked at each other, hoping of what to say. But I knew what was in my heart to say. I saw it in my cousin’s eyes as well.

♥

That night Daddy ordered take-out from an Indian restaurant that was a favorite of ours. Momma was eating slowly since she was pregnant with my sister T.R. In the middle of dinner, Cousin Ray asked my parents if he could play his guitar for us after dinner. Momma told Ray that she didn’t mind him playing.

After dinner was over, Cousin Ray played his guitar and sang. Both sides now, Yellow Taxi, Dominique; Norwegian Wood, Puff the magic dragon. His voice was so wonderful that I begged for him to play anther song. But Daddy said song or no song; it was past my bed time.

Ray singed My love and The Rose. The last song he played was a song he wrote back in middle school in Canada. He dedicated the song to me, then began to play his guitar and sang:

After the times that we spent together for so long, I decided that I must leave you.

I believe that in order to be free, I have decided that we should be apart.

I love you, but sometimes love has to die like a dying rose.

Though I try to forget about our love, your face is always in my heart.

In my dreams, I’m holding you, when I’m awakened; I realize that you are no longer mine.

Parting is such sweet sorrow that I no longer love you.

Everyday is painful of not being with you, my dear.

I have no sun without you, and your sweet voice are just echoes.

I cry everyday because you’re not with me.

I long to be with you, but it can’t be fulfilled.

I have to realize the sad truth.

Parting is such sweet sorrow that I no longer love you.

As Ray played on, I felt like crying. The last lines Cousin Ray sang broke my heart:

If you see me, please remember our lives together, and remember us.

It’s such sweet sorrow that our love has to end.

After Cousin Ray finished the song, I wept. Momma held me as she rocked me in her arms. I never cry at most songs, but Cousin Ray’s song was that one song that moved me to tears. After I finished crying, Daddy put me to bed.

♥

As Daddy tucked me in, I asked him, “Why did Ray sing me that song?” Daddy sat down by my side as I sat up to hear him speak. Daddy took a moment to answer my question.

“Ray wrote the song for a girl he was in love with back in middle school. Ray was fifteen and the girl was thirteen. They were best friends back in elementary school. Ray was in love with her. One day before spring break, Ray and the girl were sitting under the cherry tree in the school yard. Ray told the girl that he loved her and asked for her to be his wife when they met again as adults in seven years. She would be twenty and Ray would be twenty-two.

“The girl knew that they were just kids and that she had a whole life ahead of her and she was just too young to get engaged and be married. She declined your cousin’s proposal and wouldn’t even take the gold necklace he’d found for her. It was the best decision that she made to turn down the proposal. Many years later, she became a model and a movie star. They met once in Paris, and then she was gone off to Italy to do a photo shoot. Ray never saw her again. To this day, he still plays the song about the girl he lost as a child. It was the same song that he played for the girl.”

“And Cousin Ray played it for me,” I said. “But why?”

“It’s because you remind me of her.” a voice spoke. I saw Cousin Ray standing under the doorway of my room.

“Alright, time for bed, Bright Eyes,” Daddy said, “you’ll see Ray in the morning.

Daddy gave me a peck on the forehead and clapped off the lights. I told Daddy and Ray goodnight as they left my room. In the darken room, I sang Ray’s song to myself as I drifted off to sleep.

♥

The next day Cousin Ray asked me out on a play date. Cousin Ray was taking me to Central Park and the zoo. I wanted to stay home and watch cartoons, but Momma and Daddy made me go with Ray on the ‘play date’.

The first place Ray took me was Central Park. We walked around the park, rode the carousel and visited the zoo. At the zoo, animals were pairing up and ‘going crazy’. (I finally found out that they were making out.) After the zoo, Cousin Ray took me to a hot dog stand to eat. After the hot dogs, we went to Dylan’s Candy Bar and brought some candy.

Before we went home, Cousin Ray and I stopped at a photograph shop. Cousin Ray doesn’t like to have his picture taken, but he wanted to do this just for me. Cousin Ray paid the photographer and led me to the bench in front of the camera. Cousin Ray held my hand my hand as I placed my head on his shoulder.

“Is this your daughter?” the photographer asked Ray.

“My cousin,” Ray corrected.

Before taking our picture, the photographer told us to smile. Cousin Ray and I smiled as the lady pressed off the shutter button.

♥

When we got home, Momma greeted us. “How was the play date?” she asked.

“It was a blast,” I told her.

“Oh, was it.”

“Butterfly was an absolute angel, Phyllis.” Cousin Ray replied. “She was so good, that people thought she was my daughter. I wish she was; I could just take her home with me.”

“Oh, no! Don’t do that,” Daddy said, “Then Butterfly wouldn’t see her little sister.” The adults laughed at the joke.

♥

The next day it rained. The downpour was so hard that I thought that the earth would flood over. I spotted a large, white envelope, a bouquet of daisies and a card on my desk. I hopped out of bed and dashed over to my desk. I picked the card off my desk. The card was a Victorian styled picture of a dog on a train, waving goodbye to a cat outside.

I opened the card and read the words my cousin wrote:

Butterfly,

I’m sorry that I couldn’t say goodbye to you in person, so I have to say it in this card. I’m so happy that I got to meet you and spend some time with you. I am saddened that I may never meet you again. My dearest cousin, I have seen the art work you have creative by your own hands. I didn’t know that you were an artist. I’m an artist myself. I’m not only an artist, but I also write in my spare time. We both have a calling to become artist; when I do my craft, I’ll think of you. I have to go. Please take these three gifts as a token of my love. I hope to see you again someday. Please take care of yourself, your parents and your unborn sister when she comes into this world.

Your Beloved Cousin,

Raymond Quidame

I opened the envelope and pulled out the frame that had the photo of my cousin and me inside the glass cover. When I saw Cousin Ray’s smile, it melt my heart. I kiss the frame and embraced it to my heart. I cried because I never got to say thank you to my cousin. I thought about Cousin Ray as my tears fell onto the frame.

Like this:

I have a story that I want to share with you. Every time I tell someone my story, I always end up crying, because the story is very heartbreaking. I don’t want to tell you my story; if I don’t, then my story will be forgotten. The story is about a man and I and how we were in love during the summer in Orangeburg, South Carolina. During that summer of last year, we were always together. We were so much in love with each other, we slept together unexpectedly.

Although we don’t see each other that often, we send each other letters and visit each others blogs and Facebook pages just to keep in touch. And we always talk on the phone a lot. In the sixteen years of my life, I have been taught about love and its lesson that came with it. One of those lessons came to me so unexpected that I didn’t know that it would hit me.

That lesson was: you should never fall in love with our own relative. Even if that relative you fall in love with is your very own cousin. Here is my story.

♥

It was the spring of 1999 that I first met Ray Quidame. I was seven years old and had just came home from school. As I entered the apartment, I noticed a pair of suitcases and a guitar by the couch.I was enchanted by the guitar, when I heard sounds of laughter from the kitchen. The laughter was that of my parents; but there was another laughter that was so musical that it blended with the laughter of my parents.

I strolled into the kitchen and was surprised by the guest sandwiched between my parents at the table. The guest was a White man in a gray suit. He wore glasses and had clean-cut hair that was the color of Pepsi cola. His eyes were angelic blue that made you weak in the knees when you looked into them. He was so lovely like a prince in the fairy tale books that I read. When the stranger glanced his blue eyes my way, I was caught in his enchantment. Momma looked at me, then at the stranger. Momma spoke for me since I was too speechless to speak.

“Ray, this is my little girl, Sheila, but we call her ‘Butterfly’.” Momma told him. Turning her gaze toward me, Momma introduced me to the stranger.

“Butterfly, this is your cousin, Ray. He’s visiting us for the weekend. Say hello, baby.”

“Hi,” I spoke shyly.

Cousin Ray inspected me from my brown hair to my red Mary Janes.

“Hello, my honey,” Ray finally spoke. When Cousin Ray said hello, he spoke in a rich, not too deep tone of voice. It was so perfectly pitched that I thought that he was a singer in disguised.

I leaned later from my daddy that Cousin Ray once lived in Canada as a boy and moved to New York at seventeen to study law and become a lawyer. Cousin Ray and I looked at each other, hoping of what to say. But I knew what was in my heart to say. I saw it in my cousin’s eyes as well.

♥

That night Daddy ordered take-out from an Indian restaurant that was a favorite of ours. Momma was eating slowly since she was pregnant with my sister T.R. In the middle of dinner, Cousin Ray asked my parents if he could play his guitar for us after dinner. Momma told Ray that she didn’t mind him playing.

After dinner was over, Cousin Ray played his guitar and sang. Both sides now, Yellow Taxi, Dominique; Norwegian Wood, Puff the magic dragon. His voice was so wonderful that I begged for him to play anther song. But Daddy said song or no song; it was past my bed time.

Ray singed My love and The Rose. The last song he played was a song he wrote back in middle school in Canada. He dedicated the song to me, then began to play his guitar and sang:

After the times that we spent together for so long, I decided that I must leave you.

I believe that in order to be free, I have decided that we should be apart.

I love you, but sometimes love has to die like a dying rose.

Though I try to forget about our love, your face is always in my heart.

In my dreams, I’m holding you, when I’m awakened; I realize that you are no longer mine.

Parting is such sweet sorrow that I no longer love you.

Everyday is painful of not being with you, my dear.

I have no sun without you, and your sweet voice are just echoes.

I cry everyday because you’re not with me.

I long to be with you, but it can’t be fulfilled.

I have to realize the sad truth.

Parting is such sweet sorrow that I no longer love you.

As Ray played on, I felt like crying. The last lines Cousin Ray sang broke my heart:

If you see me, please remember our lives together, and remember us.

It’s such sweet sorrow that our love has to end.

After Cousin Ray finished the song, I wept. Momma held me as she rocked me in her arms. I never cry at most songs, but Cousin Ray’s song was that one song that moved me to tears. After I finished crying, Daddy put me to bed.

♥

As Daddy tuck me in, I asked him, “Why did Ray sing me that song?” Daddy sat down by my side as I sat up to hear him speak. Daddy took a moment to answer my question.

“Ray wrote the song for a girl he was in love with back in middle school. Ray was fifteen and the girl was thirteen. They were best friends back in elementary school. Ray was in love with her. One day before spring break, Ray and the girl were sitting under the cherry tree in the school yard. Ray told the girl that he loved her and asked for her to be his wife when they met again as adults in seven years. She would be twenty and Ray would be twenty-two.

“The girl knew that they were just kids and that she had a whole life ahead of her and she was just too young to get engaged and be married. She declined your cousin’s proposal and wouldn’t even take the gold necklace he’d found for her. It was the best decision that she made to turn down the proposal. Many years later, she became a model and a movie star. They met once in Paris, and then she was gone off to Italy to do a photo shoot. Ray never saw her again. To this day, he still plays the song about the girl he lost as a child. It was the same song that he played for the girl.”

“And Cousin Ray played it for me,” I said. “But why?”

“It’s because you remind me of her.” a voice spoke. I saw Cousin Ray standing under the doorway of my room.

“Alright, time for bed, Bright Eyes,” Daddy said, “you’ll see Ray in the morning.

Daddy gave me a peck on the forehead and clapped off the lights. I told Daddy and Ray goodnight as they left my room. In the darken room, I sang Ray’s song to myself as I drifted off to sleep.

♥

The next day Cousin Ray asked me out on a play date. Cousin Ray was taking me to Central Park and the zoo. I wanted to stay home and watch cartoons, but Momma and Daddy made me go with Ray on the ‘play date’.

The first place Ray took me was Central Park. We walked around the park, rode the carousel and visited the zoo. At the zoo, animals were pairing up and ‘going crazy’. (I finally found out that they were making out.) After the zoo, Cousin Ray took me to a hot dog stand to eat. After the hot dogs, we went to Dylan’s Candy Bar and brought some candy.

Down the street, I felt like a princess, with Cousin Ray holding my hand. When we were at the door to my apartment, Ray looked at me with those blue eyes as he lifted up my chin to face him. With his thumb, he traced my birthmark on my face. Every time someone looks at my birthmark on the left side of my face, they often tell me that my birthmark looks like a brown, fuzzy caterpillar resting on my face. That’s how I got the name Butterfly from.

The door opened as Ray stopped touching my birthmark. Momma appeared at the door way. “I was just checking on you two,” she responded softly.Cousin Ray replied, “We’re just fine, Phyllis.”

♥

Before we went home, Cousin Ray and I stopped at a photograph shop. Cousin Ray doesn’t like to have his picture taken, but he wanted to do this just for me. Cousin Ray paid the photographer and led me to the bench in front of the camera. Cousin Ray held my hand my hand as I placed my head on his shoulder.

“Is this your daughter?” the photographer asked Ray.

“My cousin,” Ray corrected.

Before taking our picture, the photographer told us to smile. Cousin Ray and I smiled as the lady pressed off the shutter button.

♥

The next day it rained. The downpour was so hard that I thought that the earth would flood over. I spotted a large, white envelope, a bouquet of daisies and a card on my desk. I hopped out of bed and dashed over to my desk. I picked the card off my desk. The card was a Victorian styled picture of a dog on a train, waving goodbye to a cat outside.

I opened the card and read the words my cousin wrote:

Butterfly,

I’m sorry that I couldn’t say goodbye to you in person, so I have to say it in this card. I’m so happy that I got to meet you and spend some time with you. I am saddened that I may never meet you again. My dearest cousin, I have seen the art work you have creative by your own hands. I didn’t know that you were an artist. I’m an artist myself. I not only an artist, but I also write in my spare time. We both have a calling to become artist; when I do my craft, I’ll think of you. I have to go. Please take these three gifts as a token of my love. I hope to see you again someday. Please take care of yourself, your parents and your unborn sister when she comes into this world.

Your Beloved Cousin,

Raymond Quidame

I opened the envelope and pulled out the frame that had the photo of my cousin and me inside the glass cover. When I saw Cousin Ray’s smile, it melt my heart. I kiss the frame and embraced it to my heart. I cried because I never got to say thank you to my cousin. I thought about Cousin Ray as my tears fell onto the frame.